top of page

Thursday January 23rd, 2025 Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

Neil Wylie

This was our first visit to Grand Turk, a small island in the Caribbean nation of Turks and Caicos – an archipelago of 40 low-lying coral islands in the Atlantic Ocean, a British Overseas Territory southeast of the Bahamas. The island is really small, 6 miles long and 2 miles wide, so I think it’s the smallest we’ve visited.

 

The Queen Victoria made a very slow final approach to Grand Turk, from our starboard side balcony I could see a tiny part of the island up ahead and a few marker buoys immediately over the side – and as I looked down into the water, I could see the edge of a coral reef just below the surface and only about 6 feet from the side of the ship. It’s amazing how maneuverable this block-of-flats size vessel is, with what appears to be mm precision the captain brought the ship gently to dock at the small pier jutting out from the small island. With one final looking over the side, I spotted a small turtle frolicking in the sun and just as he turned to head beneath the surface, I swear I saw his small fin rise and give me a welcoming wave.

 

None of the ship’s excursions appealed to us, so we decided to explore independently. There was a fairly modern cruise center on the dockside, filled with all the usual tourist shops – the same shops pop up in virtually all of the Caribbean islands; jewelry, t-shirts, “local” crafts with carefully attached “made in China” stickers. Passing straight through the cruise center we headed for that taxi area with the idea to take a ride up to the north of the island to see an interesting lighthouse and then come back to the one main town on the island, Cockburn. However, I soon realized that there were no small cars, only small vans offering island tours – we joined a group of 4 other travelers, $35 each for about 2 hours.

 

The van ride turned out to be great; our driver appeared to know everyone on the island and as we’d pass houses, he mentioned who lived there, what they did for a living – this was his uncle’s house, his cousin’s, these were all his grandfather’s properties, Mrs. Jones lived there – her husband was bad, he used to poison her, and on and on. We soon realized how tiny the island was and there were no major tourist developments; the driver pointed out the largest hotel on the island, it was like a BnB. We passed an abandoned US base which was in a sad state – this launched a series of interesting comments from the driver about local politicians. Interesting to note that a very large portion of the island properties were owned by Canadians.

 

We stopped briefly at the capitol, Cockburn Town, to drop off two of our group – the town consisted of one main street with shops and restaurants, and a few side streets. Heading further north we began to see the famous wild donkeys along the roadside, and also several old salt ponds – salt production was the main reason the island was populated but he industry is long gone.

 

The historic lighthouse was located right at the northern tip of the island, it was erected in 1852 following a tragic shipwreck. All of the parts of the lighthouse were made in England, and it was transported to Grand Turk and assembled. Though no longer in use, our driver recalled being employed as a boy to go up and fill the oil tanks to keep the light going. It was a very beautiful spot with great views along the coast; there was also a bar and a gift shop – even though it was only 10:30 in the morning, a cold beer hit the spot.

 

The northern part of the island had been a US Navy base, and our driver had great memories of being signed in to get beers for 50c each and attend the weekend dances. Heading back down towards Cockburn Town we passed through more small villages, the driver regaling us again with details about the occupants and ownership. In the town we wandered along the main street and then turned a few steps down to the beach – it was deserted and pristine with beautiful clear water lapping at our heels. Grand Turk really is different from the other islands we’ve visited, no major developments and no crowds at the beach.

 

Back at the cruise center we headed for the only eatery available, Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville – not somewhere we’d normally go, but we were hungry and just wanted to try something off the ship. The restaurant was quite large, with several buildings and a big pool – the mostly younger crowd (probably off the Carnival Pride, also in port today) were enjoying themselves, dancing and swimming. A DJ was blasting out extremely loud noises, presumably music, so we asked for a table as far away from the noise as possible. The food turned out to be quite good and the fishbowl-sized margaritas really hit the spot.

 

Cabin update: the problem with the steam pipe noise above our cabin cannot be fixed. So, after much discussion, we will continue to officially reside in 8111 but sleep in 8055 until we get to Rio then we will move to 8035 – this is a club balcony cabin, and we will bet to use the club restaurant for all ship meals all the way back to Southampton. We’ve also received some on board credit and will get a free dinner in the Verandah Steakhouse.







3 views

Commentaires


bottom of page